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One Spark festival raises expectations for present and future Jacksonville

Times-Union photos Crowds of people walk along Laura Street during the One Spark festival last year in downtown Jacksonville.

Bob.Self@jacksonville.com--4/17/13--Visitors to Hemming Plaza are surrounded by various artist's creative expressions as One Spark kicks off Wednesday afternoon. Jacksonville's One Spark event kicked off Wednesday afternoon with creatives showing off their artwork, skills and pitching their ideas to the visitors that wandered throughout the city's core. (The Florida Times-Union, Bob Self)

Bob.Self@jacksonville.com--4/10/13--Early signs of the upcoming One Spark event around Jacksonville. (The Florida Times-Union, Bob Self)

Bruce.Lipsky@jacksonville.com--04/18/2013--Rethreaded, a program to employ women coming out of the sex trade was set up in the Main Street Park. One Spark creators were set up around Downtown on Thursday, April 18, 2013, in Jacksonville, Florida. (Florida Times-Union, Bruce Lipsky)

One Spark had few expectations in 2013. But after the event became one of Jacksonville’s biggest events in its first year, expectations couldn’t be higher for 2014.

The One Spark festival, set to run from April 9-13 in a 20-block area of downtown, no longer is a curious novelty with no defined parameters. This year, business and community leaders are banking on One Spark leading the way to promote Jacksonville to young and developing entrepreneurs.

The stakes are high for the entrepreneurial, cultural and artistic fair that is about to take over downtown Jacksonville.

“Young entrepreneurs and young talent these days, they want to figure out the best place to live and then go find a job where it’s really cool to live,” said Daniel Davis, president of JAX Chamber. “We realize that, and we have to market to the rest of the nation and to the world that we are a hip, cool place to be an entrepreneur, and you can be really successful.”

Davis said One Spark does just that, especially after the inaugural year when there was little awareness of the event outside of Jacksonville, yet an estimated 130,000 people descended on downtown for the festival in 2013.

“There’s no doubt that we’ve contributed to expectations being raised a bit, and we’ve done that with purpose,” said Joe Sampson, One Spark executive director. “We just want to make sure that we’re always setting the bar high for ourselves.”

Organizers had a year to plan for the second event as opposed to a few months last year. Sampson said word has gotten out, and organizers have already had more inquiries from potential businesses and visitors this year, though he admitted he couldn’t predict how many people will visit downtown for One Spark this year.

But Sampson said the event has already received media attention with stories covered by news agencies from far outside of Jacksonville.

Given the growth of participants, prize money and marketing, Davis acknowledged One Spark is in the crosshairs of many who hope to land financial and reputation windfalls from this year’s event.

Immediately, when that many people are downtown, retail businesses benefit and that means more sales-tax revenue for the city, said Ted Carter, executive director of the Jacksonville Office of Economic Development.

And the promise of prizes and recognition encourages entrepreneurs to provide more inventive energy, Davis said. In essence, he said, it’s part of developing a new generation of business owners.

“We’re doing everything we can in Jacksonville to send a message that we want young talent in our community, and we want to retain young talent in our community because that’s how we really grow our economy,” Davis said.

Davis said the One Spark festival is a business marketing tool for Jacksonville.

This month, Jacksonville was ranked by WalletHub.com as the top city in the United States to start a business out of 150 cities in the ranking.

One Spark co-founder Elton Rivas said in a Times-Union report the ranking is an example of Jacksonville’s growing reputation as an emerging “startup scene,” which was part of the impetus to beginning One Spark.

The inaugural One Spark in 2013 had 900 participants — or “creators” — entrepreneurs, artists and inventors. It’s akin to a large-scale science fair complete with artistic, entrepreneurial and cultural displays, entertainment and activities.

In addition to creator exhibits, there is a speaker series this year. A music stage will feature live bands at the Landing. Hemming Plaza and Main Street Park will be used as “pitch decks” where entrepreneurs can pitch crowds with their business concepts. Dozens of other events are planned.

Creators have increased to about 925 with about 625 projects, a 23 percent increase over last year. Projects from outside Duval County are 15 percent higher than last year. Three are from Italy, Senagal and North Korea.

This year’s One Spark also has more prize money for creators.

Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan, private venture-capital firms and partners combined forces to offer up to $3.25 million in potential investment opportunities — more than triple Kahn’s $1 million contribution last year. The money from Khan, Arsenal Venture Partners, Palm Ventures, Florida Blue, PS27 Ventures, Healthbox and UE Investors is designed to encourage favored creators to develop their projects into business ventures.

“I think that the success [in terms of numbers of audience] of last year is making a believer out of the business community,” Davis said Thursday. It certainly prompted the Chamber to expand its involvement

City officials also are more engaged this year.

Carter said One Spark has added another “high quality” event in the quiver of the city’s cultural options. In turn, the event is highlighting hyper-local aspects of the city that usually do not get mass exposure.

“People are in the streets. There’s a lot of diversity. It showcased through the creative zones buildings that people typically would not have been exposed to,” Carter said.

Carter said that for Jacksonville to flourish, the core economic driver of the city will have to be the downtown, as with any other successful large city.

“Instead of looking at New York or Silicon Valley, we can ask, ‘Why not Jacksonville?’ That is a compelling argument and one that we are starting to win,” Carter said.

While One Spark is privately run, a half dozen city governmental agencies already have been involved in the planning process. They’ll also provide personnel for event coordination, security and sanitation.

Tonisha Landry-Gaines, director of special events for Jacksonville, said the transition from the inaugural year to the second One Spark has brought about more definition of what needs to be done in terms of support from the city.

“Obviously, with an inaugural event there are a lot of unknowns,” Landry-Gaines said. “We were able to get started earlier [this year] in terms of planning and having an understanding of the resources that may be needed and how we can offer support.”

One of the key changes is the size of the event. The first year, One Spark sprawled across 26 blocks in downtown and many displays, exhibits and participants were outside the central area of downtown. With the reduction to 20 blocks, Landry-Gaines said the event is much more manageable.

Sampson also credited the city for streamlining the permitting process.

Citing the city and business community support, coupled with a substantial increase in participants, Sampson said confidence is running high among One Spark organizers.

“I think for the startup community and the creative community, One Spark is sort of becoming the center of a really incredible ecosystem with a lot of amazing companies and teams that are launching right here in Jacksonville,” Sampson said.